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Most Serene Republic of New Johannes
New Johannes, officially The Most Serene Republic of New Johannes, is an Island State off the coast of East Africa. The Autocratic State is headed by the Most Distinguished Autocrat (Official NATO reporting title). New Johannes has a total area of 589,540 square kilometers though its exclusive economic zone extends for a total area of 2,000,000 million square kilometers and has a population just barely exceeding 6,000,000. It is bordered to the west by the ruins of the former nation of Mozambique and to the North by Ertrea Nuevo. Normanna Mo i Rana IV is the current, and first, Most Distinguished Autocrat. State Power is controlled by a Large, socially-minded government with a focus on Law and Order, Defense, Education, Healthcare and Welfare. The country maintains a largely industrious and service based economy focused on automobile manufacturing, tourism and fish farming. It also follows the Hjalmer Schacht model with a massive focus on social security, social services and health care. With a GDP Per Capita of 24,857 Island Pounds it is ranked 48th in the Atlantic Cooperative in terms of GDP Per Capita but has a nearly non-existent wealth gap, ranking second regionally, and is the 39th most technologically advance with focus on the instrumental and mechanical sciences. New Johannes has extensive reserves of oil, gas, ilminite, nickel, copper, tungsten, uranium and platinum with limited reserves of gold. The nation is mostly reliant on hydroelectric and geothermal power. History Being a relatively new country their history is not vast though it is known that prior to 'The Shattering' as it is locally known, the people were ruthlessly oppressed as a minority group by their mother state, the United States of Africa. Following involvement in the Shattering and the dissolution of the United States of Africa, the minority group succeeded and settled on the long abandoned island of Madagascar dubbing is New Johannes, a name chosen in honor of the city of Johannesburg and Normanna's younger cousin Johannes Mo i Rana. Following his revolt Normanna was given the title of Most Distinguished Autocrat and was declared the undisputed leader of New Johannes provided the government remained under fair representative control. Geography New Johannes is located off the east coast of Africa with territories in the former Comoros Arch and Mauritius. While there are minor discrepancies between different altitudes and positions further inland and closer to the coast, the entire island has a relatively common biome. It differs from other hot and semi-arid regions in that it provides a home to more than three thousand species of succulent from small shrubs roughly the size of a football to colossal plants as large as four meters tall. Through most of the country it is generally flat with few mountains mostly located slightly inland of the north western coastline where it reaches the central plateau, which itself is decorated with small 'koppies' akin to the southern and south western deserts. Rainfall is typically between 400mm and 900mm of rain per year, mostly in autumn and winter. Summer temperatures can regularly reach forty four degrees centigrade and winter temperatures will frequently reach negative ten degrees. It is generally cooler along the central plateau and highlands. Biodiversity The main island is home to almost three thousand species of endemic plant life with roughly seventy species of insects, arachnids and other arthropods and a little over fifty species of mammal including a bizarre crossbreed between the Honey Badger and Tasmanian Devil. There are three thousand species of freshwater fish found in the island's roughly 82,000 square kilometers of lakes and rivers with a catchment area of more than 272,000 square kilometers. Offshore, many species of game fish can be found, one example of the former-cryptid, Trunko was fished up by whalers and preserved in the port city of Priok, a city founded in the ruins of Toamasina. Environment The scenery in New Johannes is somewhat plain in that it consists mainly of plains with rocky outcrops or 'koppies' every few miles, these are considerably more corrosion resistant than the flat lands. Yet, despite the rare, very heavy rains, the region is still largely semi-arid due to poor quality, lime rich soils mostly above rock. Politics and Government Structure Classified as one of the least democratic governments, New Johannes proudly claims its place as an Autocracy with next to no crime and very few unnatural deaths as well as a very small black market with it contributing to less than 0.2% of the economy due to government micromanagement. According to the constitution the state is divided into five provinces, South Johannes, North Johannes, West Johannes, Mauritius, and Comoros. Each of these provinces have a government consisting of one representative for every 100,000 people of a demographic to provide demographic representation, the elected officials then gather and choose one of the capital representatives as a provincial representative. These five representatives then elect the Most Distinguished Autocrat for the next ten year period. The larger House of Commons consists of roughly 600 seats and is set to expand considerably. The smaller house, The House of Lords, consists of thirty representatives and the smallest house, The House of Kings, consists of six seats. All are set to grow as the population does. Security Fortress Corps Conscription is mandatory for at least one year, this combined with the small population called for the construction of a massive string of fortifications totaling 2,161 kilometres in length around the central plateau of the main island. The defensive perimeter consists of 427 Ouvrages, 1,056 casemates, 234 infantry shelters, 52 radar stations and observatories and roughly 3,355 blockhouses or gloches. When fully deployed the fortress corps consists of 156,000 soldiers though in peace time the fort is manned by a skeleton crew of 26,000 conscripts. The Navy The Navy is limited to 'green water' capabilities being able to patrol and protect a region with a radius of 2,000 kilometers from the main base in Priok. This is largely because the navy only operates 16 ships, 28 vessels and 30 boats with a number of aircraft. Total numbers amount to 3,600 personnel. The Air Force The Air Force is again limited with capabilities largely derived from reconstructed F-18 Hornets fitted to have superior range and use more commercially available parts to lower maintenance costs. As Such the Air Force can only field a force of 133 aircraft including trainers with a grand total of 3,600 soldiers and officers. The Land Force The remainder of the armed forces forms the ground combat arm of the SRDF numbers at around 48,000 men and women mostly deployed in the Air Defense and Indirect Fire Support Roles with 154 Self Propelled Guns and 154 Self Propelled Close In Weapons Systems. The mounted infantry arm consists of 238 wheeled infantry fighting vehicles. The Self Propelled Artillery Corps, The Self Propelled Air Defense Artillery Corps and the Mounted Infantry Corps are designed solely to support the defenses at the Last Maginot Line in the event of an attack. Economy The New Johannessian economy is largely reliant on aquatic agriculture with farming of trout providing for around 18% of the economy. Additional sectors include Automobile Manufacturing, Tourism and the production of Raw and Processed materials like Copper, Gold, Nickel and Diamonds find in the vast quantities of Ilminite. Tungsten is often processed into radiation shielding, ultra-hard construction alloys and jewelry in a fashion similar to the gold while Platinum is generally used in the production of electronics and catalytic converters, two rather common exports despite the industry being in its infancy. Major projects are underway to decrease the reliance on raw materials to a more service and construction based economy. Due to the reliance on Hydroelectric and Geothermal power, the nation has left much of its coal, oil and uranium untouched. Infrastructure There is more than 25,000 kilometers of paved roads throughout the territories and an ever expanding magnet-rail network currently spanning 4,300 kilometers. Due to the booming automobile industry much of the population has access to cheap, practical cars. These are largely based off of BMW era Minis. These were constructed and are being improved and expanded by the large scale social works programs which were designed to help workers build up a skills set. This boosted household income but also increased the cost of living due to the rising lack of cheap, unskilled laborers. Running water and electricity is supplied to all but the most remote outposts and blockhouses, which generally operate on boreholes and diesel generators. There is also a large amount of redundancy in each system to hasten repairs and cut down on service delivery times and repairs. Many of the households have access to television and radio though the former is the most prominent means of providing information to the populous with a little under one television and radio per capita. Health Medical Centers, Dispensaries and hospitals can be found throughout the islands and are concentrated in the urban centers where more than 85% of the population lives. At the same time, the low cost of health care when compared to the average Johannessian income means that it is, in general, easily accessible. This is partly due to extensive government spending in healthcare. Average life expectancy is 68.1 years. Education New Johannes proudly boasts a near 100% literacy rate due to compulsory education that is free to the public, having been funded by the government, and of first world quality. This is followed by a year of conscription in which the government pays for further studies, the conscription can be lengthened to increase the time that the government funds said citizen's tertiary education. The Most Serene Republic of New Johannes ranks 39th in the Atlantic Cooperative in terms of average intelligence.